News

Before arrest, Hernandez no stranger to violence

BOSTON (AP) — Since his arrest last week in connection with a friend’s death, a portrait has emerged of ex-NFL player Aaron Hernandez as a man who was no stranger to violence away from the field.

Hernandez has pleaded not guilty in the shooting death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, whose body was found June 17 not far from Hernandez’s North Attleborough, Mass., home. His defense team calls the case circumstantial and says Hernandez looks forward to clearing his name.

But even before the 23-year-old’s recent arrest, public records and interviews show he had been involved in police inquiries in the past, first in Florida and then in the Boston area.

One incident dates to Hernandez’s freshman year at the University of Florida, where according to a sworn court complaint Hernandez apparently was involved in an April 2007 fight at a restaurant.